Sony’s New 4K TVs to Cost Under $7,000, 4K Media Server Coming Summer

4K TVs have a long and windy road to travel before they start selling at an equivalent rate to their low rez counterparts. And surprisingly Sony is lending a serious assist with that by introducing affordable (relatively speaking to previous generations) 4k TVs.

Today, the company announced that they’ll sell their XBR-55X900A (55-inch) and XBR-65X900A (65-inch) 4K Ultra HD LED TVs for $4,999 and $6,999 respectively. They’ll go on sale April 21st, where you’ll be able to buy them in store or online.

By no means am I implying that these sets are cheap, but compared to LG’s 4K TV, which costs a head spinning $25,000, or Sony’s Ultra HD 84-inch set that was released last year, it’s a drop in the bucket. Or at the very least not the price of a brand new mid-sized car.

It’s worth noting that 4K content is relatively few and far between. So to a large degree buying one of these sets is a bit like “hurrying up and waiting”. That said, Sony will finally release their next-gen 4k Home Media Player (FMP-X1) this summer, which will ship with 10 4K feature films. The films include: Bad Teacher, Battle: Los Angeles, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Karate Kid (2010), Salt, Taxi Driver, That’s My Boy, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Other Guys and Total Recall (2012). Not exactly cinema bliss, but from a visual standpoint let’s just hope they hold up. Unfortunately, 4K owners will have to wait again until the fall, when Sony’s online delivery system kicks into action.

Sony hasn’t said how much a 4K movie will cost when the service finally goes online in Q3, but I’m willing to wager it will cost more than a Vudu HDX film, which is $6. Consumers might also be faced with long download times, since 4K films are effectively twice the size of 1080 movies. However, in the meanwhile, Sony has remastered a number of films on Blu-ray that they say are tweaked specifically for Blu-ray players connected to a 4K TV.

Christen Costa

Grew up back East, got sick of the cold and headed West. Since I was small I have been pushing buttons - both electronic and human. With an insatiable need for tech I thought "why not start a blog focusing on technology, and use my dislikes and likes to post on gadgets."